A Short Term Effect
by ame-ga-korobu
Summary: Billy rises from his grave several years after that fateful Halloween night to discover another witch has come calling, however unintentionally. A bittersweet one shot. Or is it?


Normally, Katherine wasn't one to spend her nights in cemeteries, much less on a Halloween night. It just seemed...tacky. But Beth and Carolyn had it in their heads to come out here with a Ouija board, to see what they could conjure up.

Alright, that was a bad joke around these parts - in a town infamous for its witch legends. Even sillier now that there was nothing left to conjure.

Oh yes, Katherine knew all about what went down on All Hallow's Eve back in 1993. She'd been just a child then, but a rather adept child and she'd been exempt from the Sanderson sister's ploys for immortality. After all, weak spells from the 17th century could do little harm to a modern witch...

Best keep that information to herself though, she grinned ruefully, kicking a pebble as she meandered down the gravel path that winded towards some of the town's older graves.

Salem had really cashed in on the witch thing after the infamous trials and a hoard of so called witches and Wiccans had invaded, intent on carving out their own little niche in the city and profiting off unsuspecting tourists -luring them into incense fogged shops of crystals and wands.

Katherine rather despised them. She had nothing against the nature loving mannerisms of the Wiccans, of course, but the way they attempted to claim and covet the title of "witch", to the point of excluding all other paths - irked her.

On the other hand, there were the fanatics that claimed that all witchcraft was of the devil and often used the legends of the Sanderson sisters to exemplify their point. It was as though the town was split down the middle, two warring factions - like Romeo and Juliet. For her part, Katherine paid them no mind...

Here, she stopped to take a break and rest her weary feet. Her lace up Fleuvog boots cut into her ankles something terrible and so she often only pulled them out on special occasions. But it was Samhain, which was a perfectly acceptable occasion to doll up in her Gothic best. With a great sigh, she perched herself on the edge of one of the more decrepit headstones. She was certainly living up to all her stereotypes tonight, wasn't she? In a graveyard after an uneventful séance on Halloween night with her witchiest boots and a simple long black dress. She'd tossed a velvet coat over her shoulders for added warmth and tied her curly auburn hair up into some semblance of a messy bun.

"Grandma would be appalled," she snickered out loud. Her amusement gave way to confusion and borderline terror as the grave she was seated before began to heave upwards. She watched in mute horror as the ground cracked and handfuls of dirt rolled off to the sides.

There was a great groaning, the sound of ancient wood rending itself apart and finally, a head of unruly dark hair emerged from the recently formed hole, followed by a wiry pair of shoulders.

"William Butcherson..." she breathed.

The head turned and a face drawn and pinched by centuries of death entered her view. He stared are her quizzically for a few moments and then in a voice rough as gravel asked, "Who're ye?"

There was a moment where she couldn't move. Another moment where Katherine realized she was sitting on the headstone of a (likely) very disgruntled zombie. After that little tidbit finally sunk in, she leaped from her stone perch and nearly toppled over backwards.

"Holy shit, holy shit, holy shit.." it came out as a gasped tumble of cuss words. William Butcherson was the beau of Winifred Sanderson and he had purportedly committed unspeakable crimes during his life. His undoing, as rumor would have it, was his secret affair with Sarah - the prettiest of the sisters. When Winifred had discovered this, she'd poisoned her lover and sewn his lips shut so that even in the afterlife, he'd tell no tales.

"_Dead men tell no tales_..." she whispered. By this point, the lanky corpse was stumbling to an upright position and she got a good look at the man. He was tall, wiry, and covered in dirt. After shaking himself off, he turned to look at her. Underneath the long mop of what once was probably rich dark brown hair, sunken blue eyes peered at her. "Yer name, lass?"

"I'm Katherine," she finally found her voice again. "And you're dead."

He turned to look down at his grave and then back up at her. "Aye," he nodded. "Been a spell since I last crawled out of there, I reckon."

Speaking of reckoning, Katherine was having some difficulty with the why's and how's of his current wakeful state. She would have remembered summoning a ghoul from his resting place and recalling the nights events, she could really come to no conclusion about her involvement, unless..."Oh no."

Billy mistook her quiet utterance for fear and was quick to placate. "Don't worry now, lass," he croaked. I ain't gonna hurt ye."

She didn't even hear him, mind puzzling out the state of things and fitting the pieces nicely in their slots. The Ouija board session she'd participated in (however bemusedly) with her two friends earlier that night seemed to have stirred things up after all. What a silly chit she could be, hardly pausing to think what the implications of her merely being present could mean. Controlled as she might believe herself to be, it _WAS_ Halloween and nothing was safe this night.

The zombie watched her eyes grow distant and for a moment wondered if she was perhaps a bit touched in the head, but when her gaze landed on him again, her eyes had cleared. "I'm sorry," she said. "I think this whole situation is my fault. I didn't mean to summon the dead, honestly, but..." with a sheepish grin she continued "these things do happen."

It took Billy a moment to understand her words, but when he did, he fixed her with his best scowl. "So yer a witch too,then? A she-devil like the others...wicked trollops, hags, the lot of 'em."

She let him have his moment, knew perfectly well his attitude toward the witchy folk was justified. He muttered a few more moments before turning his attention back to her.

His voice was low and threatening when he next spoke and Katherine had the good sense to be alarmed. "And what nefarious purpose you got in store for me then?"

She blinked stupidly. "Purpose? What, no...I told you, this was an accident! I honestly didn't mean to...this kind of thing just isn't my style."

"And what is your thing?" he strode towards her, watching her step lightly back onto the gravel path as he closed in. "Killing the young ones, seducing the menfolk, poisoning the village? Reaping all manner of mayhem on the innocent?"

He was before her now, towering over her small black-clad frame. Her eyes were wide and she was breathing shallowly. "No one's innocent." He pulled up short, blue eyes piercing hers.

"Nay?"

"No way. Not all witches are evil though, William," she reassured. "I may not be innocent, but I'm not evil. I spend more time hiding my powers than using them. And certainly not for any so-called nefarious purposes."

"That so?" He wanted to believe her. He did, but experience told him that the pretty girls were often the most wicked and the mostly likely to spin a web of beautiful lies around a man. "What do you use 'em for, then?"

She stepped back, away from the stench of decay and distrust. Her eyes scanned the area, searching for a way to show him _something_...ah yes, the leaves! The trees had been dropping golden yellow and red leaves for the better part of October now and they were scattered across the ground around them. She'd make them dance...

Closing her eyes, she let out a deep breath and focused.

* * *

Even during the years he'd lived, he'd never seen a thing more serene or beautiful. At first the wind merely began to howl, pulling and tugging at his frayed coat and jabot. And then, like a cyclone, everything around them began to spin. The tattered leaves on the ground flew up and about, dancing in a circle around them. Fireflies, or what looked like fireflies, mingled among them, spinning wildly to a tune only they could hear. And this witch, this Katherine, stood in the center of it all with her eyes closed and a smile gracing her ruby painted lips.

Then, as if remembering her situation, her eyes opened and the wind abruptly ceased. "That's the sort of thing I use them for," she said simply. Then, she turned on her heel and made as if to leave. "If you want to return to your slumber, do so. I won't stop you."

He hesitated, looking down at the gaping hole in the earth that he currently called home and back up to the retreating figure of the girl who'd just dazzled him. It didn't take him long to decide and he was stumbling forward after her.

When Katherine heard the shuffling footsteps behind her, she turned, disbelief painting her features. "Really?" she wailed. "What do you want now, zombie?"

He huffed in annoyance at her insulting word choice. "I'm lookin' to find some friends I made last time I was up. Don't s'pose you'd help me find 'em?"

"Friends?" she raised an eyebrow sceptically. "I would assume any friends you had in your past life are long dead by now..."

He shook his head, sending grave dust everywhere. "No, I know 'em from the night they sent those wicked hags back to Hell. Max and Dani, their names were."

Ah, well that made a grand deal more sense now, didn't it? Now Katherine understood why Billy hadn't been nearly as surprised as she to find himself out of the grave. Again, apparently. So he'd been present that night...she supposed Winifred must have summoned him from beyond to do her bidding. Seeing as she was dead and Billy had a good deal of heated words on the subject of witches, she suspected he wasn't very compliant towards said bidding. She said none of this out loud though.

"Max and Dani..." she trilled. "Max and Dani..." She was certain those names were familiar to her, but she had a hard time finding faces for them. "Tell me about this Dani, she sounds familiar."

Billy was only too glad to comply. He told her all about the young girl who befriended him, as well as the lad named Max and his lovely girlfriend. Katherine listened pensively as they walked and grew more and more frustrated as she tried to remember how she knew the name Dani. With a low snarl, she whipped her cellphone out of her jacket pocket and rounded on Billy.

"Hush up for a moment," she told him and began to furiously rifle through her contacts. If anyone knew this Dani, it was probably her good friend Lacey. Lacey, ironically, was head over heels in love with the idea of witches and knew everything about everything regarding the town's legends. If everyone knew about a girl named Dani involved with the Sanderson sisters...it was her.

The phone rang several times before a groggy voice seeped into her ear. "What the hell, Kate?"

"I'm sorry to wake you at such a late hour," she tried to sound placating. "But would you happen to know of a girl named Dani. Lived, or lives, in town somewhere. Strawberry blonde hair?"

Lacey perked up at this. "You mean Danielle Dennison?"

"Possibly. Does she have an older brother named Max?"

"She did," Lacey affirmed. "But...Max was killed in a car accident two years ago and Dani went to New York for university. I haven't talked to her since then. Why did you want to know?"

Katherine sighed. "Just helping out someone who was looking for them. I figured you might know..."

"I'm sorry I couldn't be of more help," Lacey said, a yawn distorting her words. "I'm gonna go back to sleep now, okay?"

"Thanks," Katherine mumbled and flipped her phone shut. "Well...I'm afraid I have some bad news for you, William."

* * *

They sat outside the cemetery on the bus stop bench. The night had grown quiet -gone were the revelers and done were the festivities. This was a residential neighborhood, Katherine noted. All these families would be asleep now. Now that she had to really worry - sure Billy was a horrific looking walking corpse but this was Halloween and no one would be the wiser. Come morning though...

"So what happens when the sun comes up?" she pondered out loud. Billy looked at her a moment and then back to the scene before him. He really had no idea. Last time he'd been woken up, he'd gone right back to a dead sleep after the witches were rendered to dust and the sun touched his parched skin. Would the same thing happen now?

"S'pose I'll go back," he said quietly. There was really no point in staying there and wandering the streets of Salem, after all. Katherine nodded. That would probably be for the best, she agreed. Zombies had become quite the rage in pop culture media, but she doubted Billy would have an easy time of it if he hung around. There was no way he could pass for living, not even on his best day. Her lips twisted into a wistful smile. Shame, he probably had some fascinating stories to tell.

"_Dead men tell no tales_," she repeated to herself, quietly.

When the sun rose, she let out a loud yawn and stood up. Every muscle in her body protested at the action and she stretched, an attempt to loosen things up. Billy rose also, albeit more gracefully, which she found amusing. They looked at each for a moment, neither really knowing what to say or how to end their little encounter.

Finally, she smiled. "Suppose you should be off then, eh? I need to go home as well - I can't believe I've been up all night."

He nodded. "Aye, get some rest lass."

Hesitating for barely a moment, Katherine leaned closer and placed a chaste kiss on Billy's cheek. Eyes wide, he turned to look at her but she was already pulling back and cinching her coat tighter around her thin body. "Farewell, William."

She watched him retreat back into the cemetery and when he was nearly out of view, left for home. As Billy clumsily sank back down into his grave and closed his eyes, he remarked upon something. It had been a long time since anyone had called him William. He supposed he would miss it...

* * *

Fin.

* * *

_Well..._

_I'd noticed a severe lack of Billy-centric stories in this particular fandom and as he's quite a fascinating take on a zombie, I thought I'd give it a go and whip something up. I actually have no clue if I want to leave this as a one shot (it's a tad bittersweet no?) or if I should have Katherine come back on the regular to chat him up. What do you guys think?_


End file.
